Maybe threads have already started about the recent Boston Marathon tragedy, but I have a very busy day ahead of me and simply do not have the time to dig around and check.

In any event, I wanted to point out that we do not allow political discussions on this forum. This community consists of people all over the world (literally) who all have different political views, religious beliefs, and various other opinions that can -- and do -- result in heated, passionate, and strong feelings on these subjects. I simply do not and will not allow the possibility that a thread on this forum will degrade into an all out flame war between the various users.

What happened, whether a terrorist attack (foreign or domestic) or the act of some lone crazy person, is a tragedy. I have friends and co-workers in and around the Boston area. Thankfully, as far as I know, none of them were injured. My heart and sympathy goes out to the people and families of those who were injured or killed. My heart also goes out to those who live in and around Boston who had their celebrated event and holiday (Patriots day) destroyed by such a careless, evil, malicious act by some crazy person or persons.

What I will not tolerate is a discussion that starts discussing things such as people's thoughts on terrorists, religious and/or political ideology, or conspiracy theories. I especially will not tolerate any statements by anyone that suggest that there was a legitimate justification by someone to commit such a horrendous and evil action.

I have no issue with anyone responding to this thread to offer their condolences to those who were impacted by this event, or to state (should they choose) that a friend, colleague, or family member was harmed or was at the event and in harms way. To put it simply, you may respond in a manner that shows you are sorry for the pain and trauma that this event has caused a great many people. If you have anything else to say, then keep your fingers off your keyboard. I'm sure you can find other forums that will let you discuss the things we have forbidden on this site. Feel free to go there, but don't provide links on my forum to any such site.

In addition, people often start talking about freedom of speech on these types of rules, I always point out that the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. In short, it restricts the government, not private citizens, from denying you the rights listed. This site is not a government website, so we can, will, and do limit your speech. If you do not like that, then find another forum or start your own.

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I would also like to mention that I have instructed the moderators and admins of the site to strictly enforce the policy on this issue. I told them when in doubt, issue warnings for violations and issue bans for anything they feel is an egregious violation of this policy. They are to send myself and Berto a link to any post / thread that they felt warranted a ban and Berto and I will make a final determination on whether the post was egregious enough to warrant a temporary or permanent ban.

While I usually instruct my moderators to be moderate in how they do their job here, on this issue they will be heavy handed.

I am in full agreement. The purpose of this forum is to help members identify the most optimized ways of temporarily escaping reality. There are numerous venues to discussing the so-called 'real world' or the various propaganda-shaped images or interpretations of the real world.

This may seem heartless but the fact is that hundreds of thousands of people, including children, the elderly and those in between are blown up, crushed, smashed, shot, burned, tortured to death, bombed, stabbed or dismembered every year and there's little we can do about it and commenting on one isolated incident on a gaming forum is not going to improve the stats in any way.

Last edited by The_DAO on Tue Apr 16, 2013 12:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.